A judge is disqualified for advocating the death penalty for the killer

Anders Behring Breivik boasted Tuesday that he had carried out "the most sophisticated and spectacular political attack in Europe since World War II" when he killed 77 people in Norway last summer.

And he would do it again if he had the chance, "because offenses against my people and my fellow partisans are in many ways as bad," Breivik told the court on the second day of his trial. He planned his killings as a suicide attack, he said.

"I didn't expect to survive that day," he said.

Breivik faces trial on charges of voluntary homicide and committing acts of terror in the July 22 rampage. Eight people died in a bombing in central Oslo, then 69 people were systematically gunned down at a youth camp on nearby Utoya Island.

Breivik testified in closed court a day after declaring that he had carried out the massacre but was not guilty because the killings had been necessary. He was allowed to read a prepared statement in court Tuesday, taking considerably longer than the 30 minutes he was allotted.

He rejected what he said would be prosecution efforts to portray him as a "pathetic and mean loser" and an "antisocial psychopath." He said he represented a "European resistance movement" and "Europeans who don't want our ethnic rights to be taken away."

His lawyer, Geir Lippestad, said Breivik's statement was "hard to hear, and it is difficult to understand." But he said it was important to the trial, since his client wants people to see him as sane.

"It is probably because of his ideology and his thoughts about why he has done what he has done," Lippestad said. "He thinks that it won't have any effect if he is considered insane."

Breivik's trial on is expected to last up to 10 weeks. A court translator initially said Breivik was claiming self-defense as the justification, but court officials corrected that Tuesday, saying the correct legal term was "necessity."

"He is very satisfied that he has been able to explain himself today as he wished," Lippestad said. "It was very important for him to be allowed to read his written explanation that he had prepared. Now we will have four, five days where he can explain himself orally."

Experts have given different opinions about Breivik's sanity, which will be a factor in determining what punishment he receives if convicted. Sentencing options could include imprisonment or confining him to a mental facility.

Under examination by prosecutors, he claimed to be linked to two other individuals in Norway who are associated with the so-called Knights Templar ultranationalist movement. He said "militant nationalists" had drawn tactical inspiration from Osama bin Laden's terror network.

"We've taken a bit from al Qaeda and militant Islamists, including the glorification of martyrdom" and organization into one-man cells, Breivik said. He denied that what he called the "militant nationalist" movement was evil.

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"We don't act to be evil. We're trying to save our nations, our ethnic group and our culture," he said.

Most of the relatives of the victims did not want Breivik's remarks televised, and presiding Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen rejected Breivik's claim that airing it was a human right. She ruled that his testimony would not be broadcast, and court papers indicated the five judge hearing the case did not want the trial to become a platform for Breivik to air his political views, or for them to distract from the legal issues involved.

One of the judges was disqualified before the hearing began for saying online that the death penalty was the right punishment for Breivik. Both the prosecution and defense asked that Thomas Indrebo be removed for leaving a comment on a news website that "only the death penalty" would be the right thing in the case. Norway does not have the death penalty.

Indrebo was one of three lay judges on the panel of five, along with two professional judges.

Breivik says his rampage was meant to save Norway from being taken over by multicultural forces and to prevent ethnic cleansing of Norwegians. In a 1,500-page manifesto attributed to him, Breivik railed against Muslim immigration and European liberalism -- including the ruling Labour Party, which he said was allowing the "Islamification of Europe."

Prosecutors on Monday played a recording of a terrified girl phoning for help during the shooting rampage, a recording punctuated by constant firing in the background. They also showed security camera video of the central Oslo bomb blast that killed eight people, images that participants in the trial watched with ashen faces.

Breivik sat in court without restraints, behind a bulletproof glass barrier set up to protect him during the proceedings. He appeared to be overcome with emotion, fighting back tears, when part of his video manifesto "Knights Templar 2083" was played in court.

On Tuesday, he said he wept as he watched the film because he was thinking about his country and ethnic group dying. Lawyers for the victims had said Monday that "No one thought he was crying for the victims."

Lippestad said the trial "is going very well so far, in a very ordered way."

"It is no circus, and you can tell that this is a dignified and good way to determine his guilt," he said.